“There’s no money in being right. A lot of guys are more right than me and they’re doing overnights.” – Colin Cowherd

Colin Cowherd doesn’t need much of an introduction. But he deserves one.

Cowherd has been a fixture with ESPN Radio since 2003 and is a model for a lot of aspiring young sports talk broadcasters. His use of analogies to compare sports to life and business are unparalleled and, frankly, something I do myself now (although not nearly as well) because of all of the listening I’ve done to him over the years.

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE…

Colin’s new book, “Raw: My 100% Grade A Unfiltered Look At Sports,” out in October 2015.

FROM ZACH

Audible: I know you love audio. So I teamed up with Audible and if you haven’t already, you can grab an awesome audiobook from their enormous library of over 180,000 titles for FREE. Go to aboutsportsradio.com/audible.**

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I agree with Colin that you do not have to be right, or at least not all the time. You should be well informed on what you are talking about though.

People are going to listen to compelling and interesting people, if you’re right or not I am not so sure that will sway listerners one way or another as long as you have a clear and precise way of coming about your answer/prediction/opinion that you can tell listeners how you got to your stance on that topic or game.

This podcast was awesome Zach! So many great quotes and advice from one of the best in the business that hit home with what I would imagine would be the main part of your audience. Great work as always!

http://collegebasketballtalk.com Zach McCrite

Thanks Zack… Colin has always been a king of having an opinion with conviction. Really, in the grand scheme of things, the “right” and the “wrong” is just noise.

Being right on subjects is not as important as being well informed on a particular topic or subject.

http://collegebasketballtalk.com Zach McCrite

I think this is key, Robert. So long as you are well-informed, I think listeners will respect you and continue to listen. Right or wrong matters very little, in my opinion. Thanks for writing.

Emil Dizon

A host most probably doesn’t have to be right (though if a host is wrong about many things, people would start to wonder if he/she has any credibility at all), but perhaps it’s more important for a host to BELIEVE he/she is right. I think there are enough people out there that no matter how crazy the take, there will be people out there who agree with it as well as people out there who disagree with it. Either way, the take gets a reaction from the audience, and hosts that are successful are the ones that get a reaction from listeners.

Though it is a delicate task to explain yourself when you get egg on your face for being wrong. That I think is an interesting sub-skill in sports radio (heck, Colin does it in the weekly bit “Where Colin was wrong”)

http://collegebasketballtalk.com Zach McCrite

Emil, I think you are exactly right. It goes back to Robert’s comment in this thread. Be well-informed… create your opinion from there. If you’re well-informed, regardless of your opinion, you’ll make people think. And that’s the crucial part of this whole thing.

And I’m in total agreement with your second thought. This is just my opinion, and I don’t know how many will agree with it, but I’m all about being my own ombudsman. Calling yourself out for stupid things you said or did makes you human. I mean, hell, I do it in my own life… I’m always telling my wife I was wrong (haha). Why wouldn’t I do that on my show too.